


Colors

by butterfreebutterwhyyy



Series: Countdown Timers and Invisible Strings [1]
Category: K-pop, SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2019-10-09 05:06:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17400581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterfreebutterwhyyy/pseuds/butterfreebutterwhyyy
Summary: Ha...I forgot this existed...for like 8 months...sorry...





	1. Part One

It was around noon when Jihoon decided it might be a good idea to get out of bed, regardless of if he’d gotten any sleep or not. Sadly, it was as if his body decided to work against him, making it nearly impossible to get up. He tossed and turned, tangling himself in the sheets before grudgingly picking himself out and swinging his legs over the bed. **  
**

Clouded sunlight filtered in through the windows, the blinds having been pulled apart last night. Jihoon glared at the bright light through squinted eyes. Too bright. Too early, even if it was already noon.

Taking a moment to build up the nerve to greet the day, he ran a hand through his sleep-tousled hair, giving a soft groan when it caught. He yanked through the knot, his discontent growing as he realized it wasn’t quite a knot, but dried glue matting his hair together.

“Gotta go take a shower,” he grumbled to himself, remembering the arts and crafts sessions his youngest roommate insisted on the night before. “And if there’s glitter in my hair after, I’ll have to go kill her, but that’s okay.”

“Are you talking to yourself in there again, Jihoon?” another one of his roommates asked from the hallway, most likely having heard his grumblings on his way out of their apartment.

“Shut up, Wonwoo.”

“Just saying. It’s not normal. Anyway, I’m heading out to work.” His keys jostled and the front door creaked open.

Just as the front door clicked shut, Jihoon slipped through his bedroom and down the hallway to their bathroom. It was cluttered and messy, as expected, seeing how it was shared between three guys and a girl he honestly felt a bit bad for. Still, it was quite annoying tripping over bunches of towels and fallen shampoo bottles.

The shower filled the air with steam, relaxing his stiff muscles before he even stepped under the running stream. For the first time in a long time, he had nothing to do all day. So Jihoon opted to take the longest shower possible, drowning out his thoughts with lemon verbena shampoo and hibiscus body wash that for some reason went together.

Twenty or so minutes later Jihoon found himself cursing the damned water heater in his apartment. He turned the nozzle off, reaching out around the curtain as the water stopped raining down.

It took Jihoon a bit to find a towel, seeing that his oldest roommate, Jun seemed to love to throw them all over the floor rather than place them in the hamper in the corner of the small bathroom. By the time he was able to find one to wrap around his waist, he was shivering, but calmer than he was. Maybe he wouldn’t kill his roommate for the glitter he was fairly sure to find.

Running a wet hand over the fogged mirror, he checked his reflection, finding something far different than what he expected.

In that moment, running a hand through his matted pumpkin-orange hair, Jihoon decided not to kill his roommate, but rather his soulmate.

When he was young, he couldn’t wait to meet his soulmate. He adored the idea of having a person meant just for him. His innocent mind knew he’d love them and they’d be together forever.

Now, he wasn’t quite sure. Still, they were soulmates. How else was it supposed to be? Fate didn’t care that his soulmate was annoying as all hell.

He was thirteen when they discovered hair dye. At first, he enjoyed it, the bright blue in his once plain hair. His soulmate didn’t change it up on him too often in the beginning, occasionally changing colors and eventually moving on to dye all their hair--and his by default.

That color was something he loved, a bit of his soulmate with him wherever he went. Even his mother, who had nearly had a heart attack when she first saw his hair, warmed up to the splash of color on his introverted son.

But now nearly ten years and about forty colors later, even the boy who had once loved his soulmate’s invisible touch on his body had began to hate his constantly changing hair.

Staring into the mirror, his jaw cracked in belief, Jihoon chose to do the one thing he had never considered--dye it back.

The student got dressed as quick as he could, avoiding mirrors the entire time he was bouncing, struggling to pull on a pair of sneakers that probably weren’t even his. In that moment, nothing mattered more than getting his hands on a box of dye.

Just before leaving, he grabbed a hat, hiding his still-wet orange hair. And with that he started to jog--one of the things he hated most in life--simply because the dark orange in his hair was a disaster he needed to purge from the world.

 

 

He was calmer once he left the corner store on the edge of campus, a plastic bag wrapped bottle of dye clutched between his hands. On his walk home the guilt had begun to set in.

Would my soulmate be upset with me for changing it? He pondered, having already thought about the roommates who were sure to be angry with him if he skipped the rally, even if it was for something as important as fixing his hair.

Jihoon glanced down at his watch, letting out a soft groan as he checked the time. Five minutes after two. Late already.

At least I won’t have this mess when they come home, he thought, pulling on the edges of his hat.

“COMING THROUGH!” a girl screamed, nearly running him over with her bike. “Hey, Jihoonie!” she shouted, glancing over her shoulder as she zipped by.

But he paid no mind to his youngest roommate as she shouted at him. The girl was just background noise, nothing compared to the girl riding alongside her.

The girl with pumpkin orange hair

 


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha...I forgot this existed...for like 8 months...sorry...

Jihoon watched as the girl with the pumpkin-orange hair zipped away on her bike, her hair fluttering behind her. Within a minute she was out of sight. He blinked once, twice. 

 

The hair was unmistakable. That color wasn’t a common one. But there she was with that  orange hair, gorgeous only on her, matching him down to the small streak of pink near their right ears she had missed when dying. 

 

After years of waiting, he finally found his soulmate. After years of waiting and his roommate was friends with her. She had been so close for so long and yet she hadn’t even looked his way.

 

“My roommate is friends with my soulmate,” he mumbled remembering the rally they were sure to have been rushing to. “My soulmate is a raging feminist.”

 

Something in his chest switched, and long before he truly processed what had just happened, he was running, following the two girls on bikes. His feet pounded on the concrete, his heart hammering. So close. So close and yet--

 

“Y/N!” a girl shouted, rushing to the two girls tying their bikes to stands. “Daisy! You’re late! I get it’s just a rally, but c’mon.”

 

“Here’s the posters,” Jihoon’s roommate muttered, shoving them at the third girl. “Sorry we’re late. Lot’s of drama, you know?”

 

“You were just making fun of my new hair color,” the girl with the pumpkin-orange hair laughed, running a hand through it. “I like it. I think it fits me.”

 

“I’m just saying, it was a bit of a shock.”

 

“Daisy?” Jihoon mumbled, his brown eyes wide. 

 

“Hey, Ji,” his roommate, Daisy chirped, “run the whole way here?”

 

Rather than respond, he held out his arm, pointing at the girl beside her. His breathing was labored and his face flushed. The black dye that was so important to him mere moments prior was nowhere to be seen. 

 

“You okay?” she asked, looking him over with wary eyes. “Do I need to call an ambulance or something?”

 

Jihoon simply took off his hat, showing off his hair--the hair that perfectly matched the girl with her back to him. 

 

“Oh my god,” Daisy breathed, her eyes. “Your hair. Oh my god, Y/N? Y/N is your soulmate?” 

 

“Hm?” the girl said, turning on her heel to face the pair behind her. 

 

For a moment, she just stared at him, jaw cracked open and eyes wide. With hesitant hands, she reached out, touching a lock of his hair. She inspected it, the layers of color from where she hadn’t bleached enough or where the dye had set longer. 

 

“Holy crap, your hair matches mine,” she giggled. “That’s so cool. Great minds think alike I guess.” She offered Jihoon a hand to shake. “My name is Y/N nice to meet you.”

 

Jihoon stared at her in disbelief, a laugh bubbling in his throat. “You think I did this on purpose?” 

 

“How else would your hair end up orange?” she snapped back, an embarrassed blush rising on her cheeks. “I for one really like it.”

 

Daisy gave a nervous laugh. “I don’t think she knows what’s happening, Jihoonie, so yeah, I’m gonna leave you to this. Bye!” She gave a soft snort, running off using a sign as a shield, just in case her roommate felt the need to retaliate. 

 

“I-I think I’m g-gon-gonna go too,” Jihoon stuttered, clutching his hands together, hoping to hide the shaking. The idea of being alone with Y/N has scared him since he was six--now that it was here?

 

He stumbled away, tripping over his own feet as he did. His anger had faded into nothing, replaced by the sheer terror of time passing and life falling into place.

 

Y/N cocked her head to the side, offering a forced smile. “Okay?”

 

He turned on his heel, facing his soulmate he had spent so long looking for. “And I’m dying our hair black. It’s been ten years since I’ve had a say. It’s my turn to choose,” he called after her with a smirk. 

 

“What?”

  
  



End file.
